Reflections from Craig

please know that i acknowledge everything below as my assessments and
opinions, not the facts, the truth or the way it is.

- Opening (Saturday evening)

in the original exercise we were asked to share our burning questions
with another. we then moved to a group of 4. when we returned to the
Big circle and were asked to share one sentence that expressed the
meaning we had found in our other conversations. it seemed that the
possibility was for the conversations we were having in pairs, and then
in quads, and then in the larger circle to be integrated at higher
levels as we moved along. integrated meaning that as we grew in circle
size, listening for what was emerging in the collective, holistic
conversation. instead, my assessment was that people used the opening
circle to voice their opinions, agendas and other niceties. the
niceties (flowery talk) are necessary part of the process nonetheless.
gratitude, honoring, etc... but for some reason people didn't follow
instructions, or seem to get what was available. what was missing?
more structure? more practice in circles?

    - World Café (Sunday morning)

opinion: World Cafe is excellent when there is a problem to solve, or
if the conversations being had, are intended to bring about higher
integrations of a collective question or conversation.

i found the burning questions as well intentioned, but not effectively
moving us forward. it seemed people may have been getting stuck again
here, whereas my intention is to see people shift themselves in the
conversations they are having. isn't it obvious that we all agree on
evolving social systems, creating new cultures and a world that works?
the question for me is what is your edge and how can i support you in
opening that up, so that we can resonate deeply, and from there we can
derive actions.

thought we could have used the structure to evoke a much deeper and
richer conversation. perhaps a question that would evoke more Soul.
Soul is certainly a word for us to distinguish together. would suggest
less intellectual, more evocative inquiry next time, if at all...


    - Introduction to Open Space process

long winded.


    - Open Space sessions

in personal experience, the 2nd most valuable part of the conference
(after connecting intimately one-on-one with people). people naturally
congregated into fields of interest and action. my sense is this may
be the way to build the field in the larger circle. allowing circles
within the circle to emerge, instead of starting with the largest
holon, start with the smaller ones. stacking and nesting, integrating
and finally converging.


    - Plenary (whole group) circles

needing more structure. some of the people who rotated in the
facilitation roles were sincere, but perhaps "trying" very hard instead
of Being. Peggy talked too much the first 2 days, so it was nice to
see others. perhaps using the opportunity to train people in front of
groups can be more intentional. let's acknowledge that there are
people who are more trained and developed in leading groups. these
people can then facilitate leadership development in others by creating
the opportunities and coaching the process.

people who are showing "leadership" capabilities can begin to grow
their muscle in front of crowds. probably worthwhile to have a
one-on-one debrief with those people afterward inquiring into level of
authenticity, ease, awareness, what worked and didn't work... make it
a useful experience.

we put "leaders in training" up in front of ontological coaches
training programs in a "controlled" way. as they develop, they
eventually "lead the rooms", but there seems to be a growing and
developing process for this that requires intention and purpose. we
start people with certain levels of accountability and service and then
grow them to the front of the room over time.

found these plenary circles very heady and mental for the most part. i
suggest preparing the community for understanding holons (hierarchies)
in a new light. rejection of the hierarchy becomes an even more
obscure hierarchy. confusing and anarchistic. need more hosts/people
who can hold the position of leadership, who are leaders in the field
of evolutionary leadership to model these qualities of balanced
ying/yang, profound authenticity, inspiring, revealing, transparent,
wise, willing to push their own edge, courageous, bold, etc....and are
daring enough to be there despite the potential social incorrectness of
such a role.

as you well know michael, i'm not talking about control, but
acknowledging that a leaderfull community recognizes leaders in
different areas. the leadership is diverse and rotates. but there is
an area of training and development that pertains to leadership itself.
so in fact, there can be leaders in the area of evolutionary
leadership.

i offer myself to work with others on possibly developing this as a
training program, an area for our community to leverage and develop.


    - Ritual and artistic components

sweet. there was no mention however that our ancient rituals are
themselves limited and divisive at a certain level. rituals are
beautiful. perhaps presencing the function of the ritual as the
seeding of a field. that the sacred space is created for what? for
holding the safety of the Soul's unfolding. that includes all the
beauty and the ugliness. in our helplessness, we have the opportunity
to exercise our love for one another. in opening ourselves at the core
of our being, in healing together, we begin to deeply and intimately
connect.

are there new rituals that are not based on buddhist, hindu, native
american, indigenous, goddess worship, etc, etc, etc...

how about totally new rituals?

    - Hosting/feedback sessions

the 1 i attended i found to be open and warm. the hosts did a
fantastic job of letting go and trusting.

what i found lacking in general was the ability of the hosts to push
their own edge. saying "i don't know what i am doing" does not occur
for me to be as vulnerable as saying "i am the evolution of humanity
and i have something to share". we all understand the road bumps in
the process. planning and design is imperfect and we have to fail at
it to learn.

yet, being bold seems to be much more dangerous in this social context,
more vulnerable. also, what if the hosts revealed their own
shortcomings, the most scary ones, the most vulnerable one's? even if
it is a collective edge. perhaps martin luther king was a great leader
because he created lymbic resonance. because he tapped into, and spoke
for, the collective pain. from there the vision was palpable. it
wasn't flowery from the start. it had Presence because of the
authenticity behind it. (i think)

might have been catalyzing to hear someone like Tom say something like
"i may be a leading thinker in the field, but i am incompetent at Being
Collective Intelligence, and i don't want you to know this because i'm
afraid to lose my social power...but yet, i am here to offer you my
helplessness, my fears and to become complete with you, through you."
or to hear michael dowd say something like "i started this thinking
this was my party. and my life is given to the gospel of evolution, so
i notice that i get attached. i want the credit for such grand things
as this salon. yet, in your presence i am humbled. in your light i
shine, and it becomes safe enough for me to be me, free from who i want
to be. but strong enough to take my place, no more, no less, in the
whole..."

[JUST MAKING THESE conversations up to give us an example. i am not
suggesting at all that these were the conversations that needed to be
had, or that these are the places tom and you have work to do.... not
at all. i don't know what you are working on in yourself and do not
assume so. i am not evaluating your authenticity.]

in some of the work i do ontologically...we have people purposefully
declare their own breakdown. "i am incompetent at intimate
relationships", "i am incompetent at finances", so on... it is not
intended to have people wallow in their faults. it is intended to
allow people to approach these areas with a beginner's mind and heart.
how can i reach out to you if you have it all together? if there isn't
a place i can contribute to you? it seems to me that it is in our
underlying, unexamined motivations that we can discover the deeper and
deeper parts of our Authentic Self. andrew cohen's work resonates for
me in this area. his 5 tenets are, in my opinion, very powerful
starting points for this inquiry and journey to that part of ourselves.
from there we can authentically participate in community at the
highest levels possible...truly in service to the whole, not as a
sounds good, feels good....but utterly and completely. i like Gary
Zukov's very simplistic book "the Seat of the Soul". in it he talks
about attuning ourselves to the other's Soul, to serve the other. in
that place we discover God.

the juice is in our humanity, not in our having it all together. when
human beings can open up the most tender parts of themselves (and i do
not mean getting stuck in, dwelling in, analyzing, hashing out, or
indulging in our past or in our pains...), when they can address the
fears, the sadnesses, the emotions of loss, the hurt we all have some
of inside. when we can be honest about these and begin to unravel our
identities as functions of avoiding these emotions, the heart then
becomes access to the region of the Soul. not just heart because it
too sounds good, and feels good. but because in allowing/having our
fundamental emotions (that often drive us into ideas instead of
resonance), we can integrate them, come into balance with the mind, and
ultimately be governed by something far more eternal than our minds or
emotions.

    - Meals and accommodations

excellent. more SALAD!

    - Conversations and connections with other participants

the most valuable part i found was the relationships. in the future i
am looking for more intentional design, more resonance, more pushing
the limit collectively...at least in smaller circles at first.

    - Appeal for support

Tree deserves an award. she was fabulous. she has a gift! amazing
choice of persons for that! perfect. from someone (me) whose work is
includes the transformation of money, this request for support was
elegant, humble, without any pressure, yet decisive, radically pushing
our field of trust and straight (transparent).

    - Closing circle

something shifted here (in my opinion). people started to respect the
center. it was enjoyable, delightful.

most people followed the directions (not that the directions need to be
followed all the time). perhaps we don't need the guidelines when we
are all deeply caring for the center. we hold back, we don't speak.
we say very little. we say as little as possible. we only say what
will forward the conversation. we learn to listen from the silence
(really). we burn as we let go of all the things we think we need to
say. we listen profoundly to the center.

but what seemed to be missing in general, is more of a training for
people of how to be sensitive to the center. how to pay attention to
silence (not as a nice idea!) but as the place to speak from. i would
like to see more training about how to be in circle and to bring
awareness to the reactions we have (as human beings) moving into
deeper, riskier, and uncomfortable (but more authentic) fields of
Being. i suggest including some training that enables people to
recognize their reactions to intimacy in particular. and yet to
instill an understanding that it is all a practice (a muscle) and that
together we can forge into these new territories. but we "must" be
willing to go there.

in my most recent research and experiences (i was just working in an
ontological training program with Julio Olalla in Boulder with
weekend), the lymbic resonance (emotional resonance) is a foundation
for co-sensing and co-learning. this initial field is necessary before
moving into deeper ones. it is created in part through honoring and
acknowledging (similar to how we began our circle together in the
sanctuary). but it is also created by tenderness, affection, and
moving through layers of uncomfortable intimacy like standing face to
face, looking into one anothers' eyes, saying nothing. feeling and
being with the other person. it's a very powerful and simple practice.

assuming that we can agree that the purpose for creating collective
fields consciously is to forward the evolutionary process and that it
is in the experience of Oneness that we can BEGIN to access levels of
intuition (which itself is another practice and muscle to develop) and
Wisdom that were not available as parts...then the purpose of that is
not just to feel good about the achivement, but to become part of the
co-evolutionary process and start using intention to create ourselves.
the resonance builds and there is NO NEED for a plea to action. it
seems the plea is a sure sign of a missing field and people have a need
to think they have achieved something by going into action. when the
field is present, action is automatic. it is natural and the action is
directed from the center, not from our own agendas.

    - Anything else you experienced...

i saw my own asshole nature. in the following days, i entered into a
deep place myself and saw the level of arrogance i was carrying. i
noticed that i have been designing my life to avoid parts of my being
that i don't want to stop and be with. i can say that although i
appear to live my life in service, living from evolutionary and
conscious distinctions...that as good as it may look (mostly i'm
fooling myself), it's about me and what i can get. this is a bankrupt
process. the game is over. i had a shift over the weekend and am
grateful for it.


    _________________________________________________________

    1) What are the things you liked or valued most?

the opportunity to be with others with this passion and love. there
was a breakdown in declaring us the leading edge of evolution. i love
breakdowns.

    2) What are the things you liked or valued least?

bullshit, flowery california spirituality. talking about changing the
world but not seeing enough people willing to shift themselves, and
people not even being aware of this.


    3) What are your suggestions for improvement?

exercises

evolutionary leadership training components

CI trainings by people with serious knowledge, wisdom and BEing (i.e.
George Por, Michael Dowd, Atlee, etc...)

physical and emotional integration which is necessary part to evoke
deepest aspects of the human being. not forcing physical training in
any one discipline, but offering yoga, martial arts, dance, tai Chi,
etc.... as a daily part of the day's routine. Open Space physical
practices.

sharing wisdom circle methodologies and practices. training people in
what fields are BEYOND the intellectual.

developing intuition. asking people to let go of their belief systems
and dive into new realms without those safety crutches. training
people to deal with the scary and uncomfortable places. bringing
NOTHING to a conversation (or circle) as a practice.

prefacing what is happening by pointing out the pitfalls.

Andrew Cohen's work. Ken Wilber's work. Steiner's work. Barbara MArx
hubbard, Sri Aurobindo, etc, etc....

more of a premise for the individuals' responsibility and practice
within the whole. (i.e. Andrew's 5 tenets)

rigorous coaching that focuses on the shifting of our inner observer
(personal responsibility) rather than outer circumstances and
relationships. possible ontological sessions (i.e. Landmark Forum
modules, but NOT the Landmark Forum); deep coaching, rigorous
conversations about Being in a safe and supported environment.


    4) How can you imagine your gifts contributing to the future of this
    movement (of which Evolutionary Salons are but a part)?

i am committed to offering all that i have/am. everything i've
mentioned in this email i'm willing to put in, or help to design. we
are also developing evolutionary leadership training and are glad to
share our ongoing experiences of our learning as we pioneer ourselves
in that field.